Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs has the honour to present its

TWELFTH REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-224, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (assistance — drug overdose), has, in obedience to the order of reference of December 1, 2016, examined the said bill and now reports the same with the following amendments:

1. Clause 2, pages 1 and 2:

(a) On page 1,

(i) replace line 15 with the following:

“ment assistance because that person, or another person, is suf-”,

(ii) replace line 16 with the following:

“fering from an overdose is to be charged or convicted under subsec-”, and

(iii) replace line 19 with the following:

“sought assistance or having remained at the scene.”; and

(b) on page 2,

(i) replace lines 1 and 2 with the following:

“(3) The exemption under subsection (2) also applies to any person, including the person suffering from the overdose, who is at the scene upon the arrival of the emer-”, and

(ii) add after line 3 the following:

“(4) No one who seeks emergency medical or law enforcement assistance because that person, or another person, is suffering from an overdose, or who is at the scene upon the arrival of the assistance, is to be charged with an offence concerning a violation of a pre-trial release, probation order, conditional sentence or parole relating to an offence under subsection 4(1) if the evidence in support of that offence was obtained or discovered as a result of that person having sought assistance or having remained at the scene.

(5) Any condition of a person’s pre-trial release, probation order, conditional sentence or parole relating to an offence under subsection 4(1) that may be violated as a result of the person seeking emergency medical or law enforcement assistance for their, or another person’s, overdose, or as a result of having been at the scene upon the arrival of the assistance, is deemed not to be violated.”.

Your committee has also made certain observations, which are appended to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

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Observations
to the Twelfth Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (Bill C-224)

The committee strongly supports the intent of the bill and has adopted the amendments to strengthen and clarify the bill. The committee encourages the Senate and the House of Commons to consider the proposed amendments as expeditiously as possible so that the measures in the bill may be implemented as quickly as possible.